3 Critical Online Marketing Strategies For Professionals

The days of people looking for your business in the local phone book are almost over. Today everyone is turning to online searches when looking for a product or service they are in need of. There is no doubt in my mind when people ask me what are the top three most critical online marketing strategies for professionals.

Professionals need tools that will have them quickly and easily showing up in online search results while also positioning them an industry leader and experts.

In a world where decisions are made in a few clicks, you need online marketing strategies that will have you being found and, in my opinion, these three are your best bet for your time and resources.

Three Critical Online Marketing Strategies For Professionals

1.    LinkedIn

Recent stats show LinkedIn is 4 times better for B2B lead generation than Facebook and Twitter but that’s not what I love most about it. When your profile is properly optimized to get you found, prospects can literally come directly to you with little work on your part.

You must ensure your LinkedIn profile is well optimized for the search results to make sure you are found.  Once this is done you can experience results fairly quickly as everyday people are doing searches on LinkedIn. Also because of LinkedIn’s powerful Google indexing you can also easily be found in Google searches if you have put the right keywords into your profile.  I go into more depth on LinkedIn profile optimization in another blog post (see link below), so check it out if it seems like I’m talking a foreign language!

The other reason LinkedIn can be so powerful is the element of social proof. More specifically: recommendations. When you have glowing recommendations on your resume, that’s one thing. Having the ability to check out the person recommending you gives you even further credibility, as long as that person is legit of course.

2.    Blogging

Blogging is the ultimate online marketing strategy for professionals when it comes to expert positioning. What better way to prove you are the expert than to show your prospects through informative and helpful blog posts. Answer the questions your potential customers long to ask. Solve the problems they yearn to have solved.

I spend a lot of time writing blogs that give some of my best secrets away but how do you think my clients conclude I know what I’m doing? Blog bloggity blog. That’s how.

3.    SEO [Search Engine Optimization]

Your online marketing strategy will not be a success unless people can find you. How will they find you? Aside from social media, you want to optimize your blog posts so they can be found and indexed favorably by Google for the best possible keywords.

Your blog is of no use to anyone if it’s not being found so ensure you are always blogging with a purpose and a strategy. What are the problems you are trying to solve for your audience? Reverse engineer the thought process of someone trying to fix that problem and write your blog with the same keywords your prospect is going to use to search out their solution.

Related: 3 Major Benefits of a Great Blogging Strategy

I highly recommend the blog SEOMoz for advice on SEO. These guys know their stuff and go deep in the content of their blog posts. You’ll need to set some time aside to get through the good ones, but it’s always worth it.

You shouldn’t consider this the definitive list for online marketing strategies for professionals, it’s merely my opinion of the best tools that address the most important goals and challenges professionals face online: expert positioning, credibility and being found. Master those three things and you’ll have more leads than you could possibly handle.

What do you think are the best online marketing strategies for professionals? Leave a message in the comments below.

To ensure that you get the most out of your LinkedIn profile and take actionable steps to complete it properly, I have a special LinkedIn training webinar that you can attend to learn more.

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